RE: [stella] Stella @ 20

Glenn, you are in the video industry, maybe you can clarify this. I have
always heard that vhs format had a short life on the order of these 7
years, but I have seen so much evidence to the contrary. I recently

Depends on the tape and how it is stored. Think of all the old rock and
roll master tapes which are still being used for remasters.

Tapes can get all gummy, get demagnetized, get caught in your VCR, and
simply deteriorate when played too many times (friction on the heads). I
was mainly concerned with the friction aspect. Editing tape means lots of
FF RW operations, even though I was doing it nonlinear, just to find the
right in and out points for digitizing.

They also say to rewind the tape to the beginning so just leader is showing.